The latest on California politics and government

April 25, 2012

California has a global reputation for an anything-goes lifestyle - fueled, perhaps, by the lavishly publicized antics of Hollywood's glitterati.

A new Census Bureau report indicates, however, that Ozzie and Harriet may be more accurate exemplars of Californians' lifestyles than the Kardashians.

The report analyzes the composition of American households from 2010 census data, finding - not surprisingly - a trend toward more nontraditional living arrangements.

Those would include more singles, more single-parent households and more interracial and interethnic couples - the latter growing by 28 percent between 2000 and 2010.

The data show, however, that 49.4 percent of California households are old-fashioned husband-and-wife types, and that's one percentage point higher than the national average of 48.4 percent. And those California couples are more likely than those in other states to have children at home.

California's percentage of female-headed "family households," 13.3 percent, is almost identical to the national average, while male-headed households, at 6 percent, are one percentage point higher than the average.

Nationally, 26.7 percent of households are single persons, but it's 23.3 percent in California. And California's average household size, 2.9 persons, is markedly higher than the 2.58 nationally. Speaking of which, single-person households are 44 percent in Atlanta, the highest rate of any major metropolitan area. No California city appears on the communities with the highest rates of singlehood.

California stands out from national norms only in the incidence of interracial and interethnic households. Nationally, 9.5 percent of husband-and-wife householders have partners from a different race or ethnic origin, but it's 17.6 percent in California, a rate surpassed only by Hawaii (39.2 percent), Alaska (19.7 percent), New Mexico (19.4 percent) and Oklahoma (19.1 percent) and tied by Nevada (17.6 percent).

Finally, just 0.8 percent of households nationally are those of same-sex partners, and in California it's only slightly higher at 1 percent.

EDITOR'S NOTE, 1:03 p.m.: This post has been corrected to reflect that California is tied for fifth highest in the nation in the incidence of interracial and interethnic households.